Keratin Stimulates Nerve Regeneration

Neurologists have found that keratin, a protein extracted from human hair, effectively promoted the regeneration of severed nerves.

Severed nerves are notoriously difficult to repair. One method of treatment is to bridge the gap with a hollow tube. The tubes, known as nerve guidance conduits, cannot be used in gaps longer than 3 or 4 cm. Unfortunately, nerve regeneration with this method is not always successful. Grafting a nerve from another part of the body is usually the most effective option, but it creates another injury site and is not possible in all patients.

Investigators at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (Winston Salem, NC, USA) used keratin extracted from human hair to form gels that were then used to fill nerve-guidance conduits. They studied the effect of keratin on nerve repair in Schwann cells growing in tissue culture and in an animal model.

Results published in the January 2008 issue of the journal Biomaterials revealed that keratin activated Schwann cells and increased their proliferation and migration. Keratin-filled tubes were used in a mouse model to repair nerve gaps as large as 4 mm. The results from these animals were compared with those obtained from animals treated with an empty nerve guidance conduit and with animals treated with a nerve graft. After six weeks, all the animals in the keratin and nerve graft groups showed visible nerve regeneration across the gap, compared to only half of those that received the empty conduit.

"The results suggest that a conduit filler derived from hair keratins can promote an outcome comparable to a grafted nerve,” said senior author Dr. Mark Van Dyke, assistant professor of regenerative medicine at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. "By using keratin to activate these cells, we are trying to tap into the natural healing cascade. We believe that keratin helps amp up Schwann cell activity and give the nerve regeneration process a head start. We found that the nerve repair happened more quickly and consistently, and that functional recovery was higher. The fact that we were able to accomplish this with gels made from keratin is pretty remarkable.”


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Wake Forest University School of Medicine